Halo Fanon:Annual Halo Fanon Wikia Awards/2017
Welcome one and all to the Tenth Annual Halo Fanon Wikia Awards for 2017. We are honoured by your attendance to this annual community awards ceremony and celebration, the tenth, and hopefully, not the last of its kind. This project is coordinated by the Halo Fanon Wiki Administration, and we once again thank the Star Wars Fanon Wiki for donating the concept of this annual community ritual to us many years ago. We look forward to your participation in this community-wide celebration, and hope that you will all participate! Now, read the regulations, nominate your favourite articles, and vote! Regulations #Nominations at around 12:00 AM midnight UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on December 1st, 2017 and voting begins at the same time on December 15th. It will conclude promptly at 12:00 AM midnight UTC on December 31st, 2017! Any exceptions to this are listed below. Final winners will be announced and receive their awards on January 1st, 2018! #'Voting Qualifications': Users eligible to nominate and vote must have been users for at least four weeks and have sixty or more mainspace edits in order to vote. Because of the style of this ceremony, sockpuppets and sock masters are not invited, and will be promptly banned from the Wiki and barred from future voting. #'Nominations': ##You may only nominate articles for a category so long as it expressly fits the definition of each category. Nominations that are not eligible for a category will be deleted or moved to the appropriate category by the administration. You may request a clarification about the definition of any category from . You may not nominate an article for more than one category, with the exception of Best Canon Expansion and Most Unique Concept. Articles that are not eligible for nomination will be removed without any notice if they are found to have "content issues" ("Unrealistic", "Non-Canon Friendly", etc.) ##You may nominate an unlimited number of articles written by any number of other authors for any number of categories. However, you are restricted to nominating only one of your articles for only one category for the whole ceremony. This is to promote professional sportsmanship. For categories pertaining to users ("Best Writer of the Year", "Breakthrough User of the Year"), you may not nominate yourself. ##"Recycled" articles will not be accepted into the nomination process. An article that has received minor or no edits for the duration of the year is not eligible for the event. Every article's edit history will be checked when nominated, and will remain valid for nomination only if it has received moderate to major changes/improvements throughout the year. ##You must nominate articles according to the proper format (listed below). Fill out all the fields when submitting a nomination, and post the completed nomination form underneath the category that you're nominating the article in question for. ##Perceived breaches of good conduct and professional sportsmanship will be prosecuted by the administration to maintain the dignity of this voting system. ##The author of an article reserves the right to withdraw his or her own article from a nomination at any time, with or without given reasons. However, if a user has nominated an article that is not their own, they may not withdraw it. ##Eligible categories are decided in advance by the administration. If you have a suggestion for the addition or removal of a category, please discuss it with one of the administrators. ##Winning articles of the previous annual awards be nominated only if it's been improved upon drastically after receiving a previous award, for a maximum of three awards in separate years. This applies only to the articles, not the authors of the articles, who may only win the Best Writer or Breakthrough User award once. This does not mean that the article can only win three awards; for example, if an article can be nominated for the Best Canon Expansion category, along with its own category, and wins in the top three awards of the year, and does so for three separate years, the article in question can theoretically win nine awards in total (this is, however, highly unlikely). #You may always contest in a category even if you won an article in that same category before with a different article. #'Voting': ##Eligible users may vote for a maximum of two articles in a given category. You may vote for only one of your own articles for the entire ceremony, no matter how many articles you have in how many categories. You may not vote for yourself under a user category. ##Please sign your vote with a non-bubble text signature to verify your identity. ##You do not have to vote for an article you nominated. ##The process has two stages: nomination and voting. Users may nominate articles for the Annual Awards from December 1st, 2017 to December 15th, 2017, in order to fill out the categories with prospective AA winners. Then, from the 15th to the 30th, voting will take place across all categories. ##Winners of the Heroic, Legendary and Mythic Articles of the year will be decided between December 30th, 2017, and January 1st, 2018 ##Any categories with ties by 12:00 AM UTC on December 30th, 2017 (24 hours before the end of the vote) will be remitted from public voting and will enter private administrative ballot to decide ties. The results of the ballot will be announced afterwards. All administrators with a registered email will have twenty-four hours to decide ties. #'Winning': ##The article for the most votes in a given category will be formally acknowledged as the winner for the category, and the article and its author will be commended by an official award granted by the administration approximately by January 1st, 2018 and the end of the ceremony. Category-winning articles will be eligible for winning the Heroic, Legendary or Mythic Article of the Year awards once voting is over. ##In the event of a tie, a tiebreaker will be performed, and the winner will be decided by private administrative ballot. The ballot's content will be disclosed at the end of the ceremony. ##If an article is the only nomination in its category and receives fewer than three votes, it will be combined with another similar category after the voting process to avoid "winning by default", and votes will be counted accordingly. #'Questions': Please address if you have any questions whatsoever. Nomination Process Please fill out the following form for any nominations and file underneath the appropriate category: ARTICLENAME ( ) *'Name': ARTICLENAME *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (NUMBEROFVOTES) For the Best Canon Expansion of the Year category, the special application to be used is as such: ARTICLENAME ( ) *'Name': ARTICLENAME *'Original Article': *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (NUMBEROFVOTES) For the Best Writer or Breakthrough User of the Year category, the special application to be used is as such: *'Name': *'Nominator': Voting (NUMBEROFVOTES) Category Definitions Characters *Best SPARTAN of the Year — Any character enrolled in any SPARTAN program. *Best UNSC Personnel of the Year — Any character associated with the UNSC Marine Corps/Navy/Army/Air Force or any of its subordinate commands. Does not include SPARTANs. *Best Sangheili Character of the Year — Any Sangheili character of any affiliation. *Best Third-Party Faction Character — Any non-Sangheili character who is affiliated with a non-UNSC organization; includes, but is not limited to: AI, Insurrectionists, organized criminals, Forerunners, Precursors, etc. Technologies *Best Vehicle of the Year — Any classification of vehicle or individual vehicle capable of spaceflight, extra-atmospheric, or ground travel. *Best Technology of the Year — Any physical object or knowledge paradigm used to influence an individual's interaction with the environment, including, but not limited to, defensive systems, weapons, equipment, etc... Societal *Best Event of the Year — Any event that occurs, including a military engagement (battle, campaign, or war) between any contenders for any length of time, or a non-military event. *Best Location of the Year — Anything involving planets, cities, space stations etc. If it's on a map, it can be nominated here. *Best Organization of the Year — Any organization, including, but not limited to, governments, militaries, military subdivisions, units, civilian corporations, etc... Stories *Best Novel of the Year — Best long literary fiction. A nominated novel does not have to be completed but substantial progress should have been made. There is a general minimum length threshold for novels to be considered. Does not include roleplays. *Best Short Fiction of the Year — Best short literary fiction. Short fictions can be nominated in groups or collections. It is recommended that the nominated fiction is completed. Users *Best Writer of the Year — For literary excellence in writing articles, fictions, roleplays, and/or productions. *Breakthrough User of the Year — For newfound outstanding participation and contribution on the wiki and friendly interaction with the community. Miscellaneous *Best Concept of the Year — A sort of 'other' category for quality articles that do not fit into any other category or are not seen enough on the site to warrant their own section; species, games etc. *Best Canon Expansion of the Year — A well-written article based off a canon element or article that has strong connections to canon as well as the author's own creativity. *Best Collaboration of the Year — Any singular collaborative work, including but not limited to, roleplays, expanded universe, alternate universe, or other type of article written by two or more people that does not qualify for any of the above categories. Placement *Heroic Article of the Year — The article with the third most number of votes in the "placement" stage. *Legendary Article of the Year — The article with the second most number of votes in the "placement" stage. *Mythic Article of the Year — The article with the most number of votes in the "placement" stage. =Nominations and Voting= Characters Best SPARTAN of the Year Merlin-D032 ( ) *'Name': Merlin-D032 *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Tyler-A319 ( ) *'Name': Tyler-A319 *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (3) #This is always one of the toughest decisions each year, but considering how much work Coolbuddy (sorry man, the name change isn't gonna stick) has put into improving Tyler's article since last year I think this edges out the competition this year. There's a good balance of informative detail and compelling writing in the biography that makes it a great read overall, and I appreciate the detail put into the equipment sections. #This was a very close call for me and it really came down to whether I preferred the pictures (better in another Spartan contender IMO) or content (better here). There's a lot of detail pumped into this article's biography that I think really makes it stand out from the others and score my vote this year. #This is my first AA and I can attest that the competition for this year is very competitive. While a fan of every Spartan in this competition and even biased toward my own - I can only concur with others and say that Tyler-A319 has certainly earned this spot having gone through many changes over this last year and more. Distant Tide (talk) Cody-B042 ( ) *'Name': Cody-B042 *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Best Sangheili Character of the Year Jez 'Varum ( ) *'Name': Jez 'Varum *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Toru 'Makhan ( ) *'Name': Toru 'Makhan *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Best UNSC Personnel of the Year Ivanir Stanislav ( ) *'Name': Ivanir Stanislav *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Sylvia Farkas ( ) *'Name': Sylvia Farkas *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #While strong contenders all around, Sev's work on a character conceived purely from another user and within an RP - Farkas has most certainly come far in the span of a few months. I wonder how this woman didn't get court-martialed in all her years of military service, however, as a character she is most certainly an impressive feat. Minus the flirting though...god she needs to settle down. Distant Tide (talk) Aleksandra Zaytseva ( ) *'Name': Aleksandra Zaytseva *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #An established powerhouse in the Halo Fanon community, TEmiegh's creation of this female pilot has been a loaming prescence through my time on HF, starting with my introductions to her in the Status Quo RP. I'm also coming to the realization that there are multiple female pilots in the HF community that have had a tendency to turn my characters into blabbering morons. Am I starting to see a pattern? Distant Tide (talk) Best Third-Party Faction Character of the Year Yun'da'Klem ( ) *'Name': Yun'da'Klem *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Thomas Koepke ( ) *'Name': Thomas Koepke *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #I gotta admit, one thing that has always interested me is the concept of a tragic hero, and while it's not pulled off in it's entirety here, it does take some tropes from it. While out-of-context Koepke is basically a thug in a uniform, Actene skilfully writes it in a way that I cannot do anything but sympathise with him. Edmond Dahm ( ) *'Name': Edmond Dahm *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Kyle Craig ( ) *'Name': Kyle Craig *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Technological Best Vehicle of the Year ''Artemis''-class Battlecruiser ( ) *'Name': Artemis-class Battlecruiser *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) # While the Mercury and the Artemis are both well-executed articles, the Artemis sits better both in recent memory and has definitely gardnered unique attention for a ship article, even attracting the praise of the SOTP development team. I believe this battlecruiser wins the day. Distant Tide (talk) ''Mercury''-class Destroyer ( ) *'Name': Mercury-class Destroyer *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Best Technology of the Year Colt Blaster HDW Mk.15 ( ) *'Name': Colt Blaster HDW Mk.15 *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #Hands-down to what I'd say the best weapon article I've read on this wiki, the Colt Blaster definitely deserves this award, for being such a unique take on a weapon article. While other writers generally focus more on the ballistics and functionality of the weapon, leaving the other parts bare, Tide manages to make both the weapon's statics and its long-spread history just as exciting. I can say honestly that even if other weapon articles were to compete with this, my vote would still be on the Colt Blaster. Well done, Tide. Societal Best Event of the Year Battle of Second Sanctum ( ) *'Name': Battle of Second Sanctum *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Best Location of the Year United Republic of North America ( ) *'Name': United Republic of North America *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Sirona (Groombridge 1618 b) ( ) *'Name': Sirona (Groombridge 1618 b) *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Best Organization of the Year Gilgamesh Free State ( ) *'Name': Gilgamesh Free State *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Baal Defense Solutions ( ) *'Name': Baal Defense Solutions *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Reyes-McLees Corporation ( ) *'Name': Reyes-McLees Corporation *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Team Boson ( ) *'Name': Team Boson *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Glass Raiders ( ) *'Name': Glass Raiders *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) SPARTAN-II Program, Class II ( ) *'Name': SPARTAN-II Program, Class II *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Miscellaneous Best Concept of the Year Gilgameshan honey bee ( ) *'Name': Gilgameshan honey bee *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (2) #Like at least a few other people out there I'm sure (anyone?), I had my Animal Planet phase a long time back, and that makes it neat for me to see a bit of biology come up in an unlikely place. Of course, when filling in the just about literally most tiny detail, there have to be ways to tie it in to the bigger things to make it relevant, and this article does have a couple. Most notably is the honey's properties, which makes for a great example of planetary colonists on their own making do with what they can find around them. I could see it being more connected, maybe the honey being a profitable export or the bees being able to rejuvenate species on Earth itself, but I like what it does currently enough to get my vote. That Damn Sniper 02:41, December 16, 2017 (UTC) #In this case, yes, we are of the same mind Sniper. I grew up on American PBS late night science shows, particularly Nova and Nature. Along with the rare oppurtunity of watching Animal Planet, Steve Irwin, and the Discovery Channel when I could because of my basic cable plans as a child. I'm very disappointed that Echo did not invite the development of a painful sting into this creature for the likes of writing about a scene similar to Brave Wilderness. Also, didn't this start out as a joke about shooting beehives in Status Quo? What next? An article about Gilgamesh Peanuts? Good work Echo. Distant Tide (talk) RP:Jaeter's Protectors ( ) *'Name': RP:Jaeter's Protectors *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Halo Wars 2: Swords of Sanghelios DLC ( ) *'Name': Halo Wars 2: Swords of Sanghelios DLC *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Bazaar on the Frontier *'Name': Bazaar on the Frontier *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) *While I believe this is nowhere near finished, Tide has tried something that we've never thought of doing. While many users try to merge their characters into each other's stories and make a shared universe, Tide instead turned towards the overlooked aspects of the Halo universe; weapons, starships, vehicles, even goddamn for-hire organizations like Baal Defense Solutions for example, and got various people to get interested in it. It might be classified as an EU, but in my opinion, it's a shared collaboration, an attempt at getting people together without making one's Sangheili fight alongside another's Spartan, and with good thought at that. Best Canon Expansion of the Year SPARTAN-II Program, Class II ( ) *'Name': SPARTAN-II Program, Class II *'Original Article': *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #Having written an article like this myself, I can appreciate just how much work had to go into this project: getting dates right, planning a timeline that would match up, coordinating canon and fanon characters. And a lot of work's been done, with just enough canon info to require some figuring and an extensively filled out history. Images and tables for some visual variety, and the result is a fantastic work. But beyond it being a solid work, being open for contribution provides something invaluable to the site: consistency. When a newcomer considers making a Class II, they can look at any of the character pages involved, see there's a shared history, and get a feel for it instead of wondering why different user-universe versions and characters don't match up. It makes the site more accessible, and it gets my vote for that. That Damn Sniper 06:07, December 17, 2017 (UTC) Reyes-McLees Corporation ( ) *'Name': Reyes-McLees Corporation *'Original Article': *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) UNSC Maritime Operations ( ) *'Name': UNSC Maritime Operations *'Original Article': *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #I was really torn on which of these articles I'd pick until I spotted Tide's creator's statement in the Notes--that the article sprang up as a reaction to and part of the discussion of the Wet Navy by the community, and found that really cool. There really isn't much canon info to expand on with the maritime navy in Halo, but Tide's done a thorough job of finding what needs to be stated to paint a pretty complete picture of them, and includes some neat coding besides. I would have said it's presumptive the entire world would universally adapt to the United States' systems, but then, Nylund in the initial books leaned heavily on doing exactly that for a lot of the UNSC in general, so in that way it fits right in. Excellent concept, and great execution. That Damn Sniper 06:07, December 17, 2017 (UTC) Best Collaboration of the Year RP:Status Quo ( ) *'Name': RP:Status Quo *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) RP:Jaeter's Protectors ( ) *'Name': RP:Jaeter's Protectors *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) RP:The Hunted ( , , ) *'Name': RP: The Hunted *'Author': , and *'Nominator': Voting (0) Stories Best Novel of the Year Halo: Oversight ( ) *'Name': Halo: Oversight *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Halo: Those Who Walk In Darkness ( ) *'Name': Halo: Those Who Walk In Darkness *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Halo: Necessary Evil ( ) *'Name': Halo: Necessary Evil *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Best Short Fiction of the Year Something Felt Wrong. . . ( ) *'Name': Something Felt Wrong. . . *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) It's A Survival Blanket ( ) *'Name': It's A Survival Blanket *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #So there's a lot of grim darkness in the Halo-verse. Well, not to the degree that phrase suggests, though there are moments of it, but between xenophobic religious genocide and Cold War-ish machinations tearing down innocents or supposed allies to better positions of organizations like ONI, we don't get a ton of humor, and when we do it sticks out (hands up if Naomi's "Does this armor make me look fat?" line in Glasslands got an aloud laugh from you). But more than a joke at Simon's expense in this short, we get a genuine moment between his embarrassment and Cassandra's promising to keep it secret. It's a sweet personal moment and it has my vote. That Damn Sniper 03:22, December 16, 2017 (UTC) Heavy Weapons ( ) *'Name': Heavy Weapons *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Uneasy ( ) *'Name': Uneasy *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (1) #Maybe its our instinctive first reaction to root for the underdogs, but stories about Grunts like Yayap and Dadab trying to survive their miserable lots in life and sometimes do things even beyond that do always manage to hold my interest, and this piece delves right into what makes them interesting by just giving us a glimpse at a Grunt's daily life. It's a life of constant danger thanks to their superiors alone, who are willing to throw any Grunt that fails to do what's automatically expected or causes any sort of problem out an airlock, and then you can think about this being the lot of a permanent population aboard just one warship. Then add how little Yadap realizes he really knows, that information is being kept from him and asking will undoubtedly result in his death, and you've got a pretty good idea of how pitiful the life of an Unggoy is. Novel about a Grunt when? That Damn Sniper 03:22, December 16, 2017 (UTC) Talitsa February ( ) *'Name': Talitsa February *'Author': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Delta's Path ( , ) *'Name': Delta's Path *'Author': and *'Nominator': Voting (1) #Although there's no doubt every single one of the authors of the stories above has put effort into making their stories stand out in the AAs, I feel my vote goes for Delta's Path. While we as the original creators were just getting started on expanding Delta Company's functioning, Tide and King (who is also one of the OG writers) managed to flesh it out even more by focusing on the lives of the Spartans of the infamous Company. With excellent writing from both of them, Delta's Path really has some solid effort put from both King and Tide in this anthology, and that makes it deserving of this award and most definitely not because it's Delta Company, eyy. Users Best Writer of the Year *'Name': *'Nominator': Voting (0) *'Name': *'Nominator': Voting (0) *'Name': *'Nominator': Voting (0) Breakthrough User of the Year *'Name': *'Nominator': Voting (0)